Written By venus on Sunday, September 15, 2013 | 10:44 AM

Once a year, tens of thousands carefree people gather in a desert in Nevada to create a community dedicated to camaraderie, self-expression, art and self-reliance. The Burning Man festival has no rules on how to express oneself, so male nudity is common. Gay and straight men attend, as do a few women. This year's weeklong festival, which ended on September 2, had a peak population of 69,000, according to the federal Bureau of Land Management. The participants throughly scrub the desert of their activities under a "leave no trace" policy. Here is a sampling of activities from 2011 through 2013. Enjoy.